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Mimi Kirk, Research Director at MEI from 2013-2015, was formerly editor for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University and for the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. Her publications include Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring (edited with Leila Hudson and Adel Iskandar, Palgrave 2014), Gulf Politics and Economics in a Changing World (edited with Michael C. Hudson, World Scientific 2014), and Palestine and the Palestinians in the Twenty-first Century (edited with Rochelle Davis, Indiana University Press 2013). She holds a B.A. from Haverford College, an M.A. in cultural studies from Emory University, and an M.A. in creative nonfiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her writing has appeared in Middle East Report, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Jadaliyya, and the Atlantic, among others.
Chinese Soft Power and Dubai’s Confucius Institute
The Confucius Institute of the University of Dubai is housed in a building named Masaood, a tall structure found off a dusty roundabout about two miles west of the airport. On the day I visit, the UAE is observing National Day, and near the building’s entrance Emirati flags wave in wind smelling of the grilled meat being served as part of a nearby celebration. Up on the fifth floor, where the Institute is housed, signage is in both Arabic and Chinese. Students learn various levels of Mandarin in pristine classrooms.
The government of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had a vision for Cairo’s future. In 2007, it put forth a plan dubbed “Cairo 2050,” and among its objectives was to create wide avenues, green spaces, and new or revamped tourist sites, such as near the Pyramids.
In April, Egyptian graphic novelist Magdy el-Shafee went to Abdel Moneim Riad Square in downtown Cairo to protest a draft law put forth by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). It would only be two months until the Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, would be ousted by the Egyptian military.
